The Luce Nera medics worked efficiently, loading injured students onto stretchers.
Marlo sat alone near the carrier. A medic tried to check her for injuries, but she didn't respond.
Didn't even seem to notice.
Kenna was getting her arm bandaged, still talking despite the blood loss. "I'm fine, really. It's just a scratch. Well, more like a gash. Okay, maybe I need stitches."
Brick was unconscious but stable. Jonas sat beside him, one hand on his shoulder.
Willy had his head wrapped, Wheeler perched protectively on his lap, smaller now and quieter than usual.
Josephine refused treatment until everyone else had been seen to, despite her dislocated shoulder and obvious exhaustion.
Suzie was coordinating with the medics, documenting everything because if she stopped working she might have to process what had just happened.
Tamara sat against a wall, this time she shad a lollipop In her mouth.
One dead. Seven injured and another traumatized beyond immediate recovery.
A field assessment that had become a massacre.
Huey stood apart from the others, near the edge of the warehouse ruins.
Hailee approached, her footsteps silent despite the rubble.
"Hermione contacted me the moment she lost communication with Riva," she said quietly. "I mobilized immediately."
"You got here fast."
"Not fast enough." Her eyes swept the carnage. "Huey. A student died."
"I know."
"Do you?" Her voice had an edge now.
"Marco DiMarco was eighteen years old. She had a twin sister who's never going to be the same. This isn't some abstract case you solved."
Huey met her gaze. "I know who she was. I also know that without intervention, all ten students would be dead right now. Including Marlo."
Hailee's expression softened slightly. She sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry. I just...." She looked at the students being loaded onto the carrier. "I hate this part of the job."
"We foiled Riva's plan," Huey said, changing the subject. "But she's dead, so we can't question her."
"What happened?"
"I didn't account for her betraying Montez.
The swap worked perfectly.
Hermione used her crest to dull Riva's in the guise of having a smoke while she took the real key and replaced it with the fake.
He paused.
"But apparently Riva had her own scheme running. She switched out the key, not knowing it was a fake and hid it in her collar. She was planning to double-cross Montez from the start."
"For what purpose?"
"No idea. Selling it to a higher bidder? Using it as leverage with Arcanum? We'll never know now." Huey's jaw tightened. "When Montez discovered the fake, he found the other one on her. They fought. He won. She died."
"Whatever it was Riva wanted to accomplish doesn't matter anymore."
Hailee was quiet for a moment, processing. "How did you even get Riva assigned as your supervisor in the first place?"
Huey allowed himself a small smile. "Remember the Echo incident in the dorms? Calvin capturing it?"
"You released it."
"I released it. It got captured, taken to the labs for study, and I used it."
"Used it how?"
"Echoes are made of energy. Specifically, the kind of energy that can interface with electronic systems if you know what you're doing." His eyes glowed faintly blue. "I had it infiltrate the university database and reassign field assessment supervisors. Made sure Riva got our legion."
Hailee stared at him. "You hacked the university system using a Variant."
"Technically, Jazz hacked it."
"And Giacomo?"
"You asked me to create an opportunity to test if Riva was the mole. The Nexus Key was perfect bait. I had Jazz send Giacomo a memo suggesting that advanced student evaluations would require comprehensive data access. When Riva heard about it, she approached him herself."
"She took the bait."
"She took the bait. Insisted she needed the key for Omega-potential assessments. Giacomo couldn't refuse once she dropped that word."
Hailee shook her head slowly. "You orchestrated this entire thing. The Echo, the database hack, baiting Giacomo, planting the fake key."
"Everything except Riva's betrayal. That was her own greed."
"And it got her killed."
"It got Marco killed," Hailee corrected quietly.
"Riva made her choice. Marco was just in the wrong place."
They stood in silence for a moment.
Then Hailee placed a hand on his shoulder. "You did good work today, little brother. You helped expose a corrupt Arcanum agent and prevented a larger disaster. You should be proud."
"Huey, I won't lie that I'm not completely fine with how you do things."
Hailee squeezed his shoulder once, then released it. "But it's the path you've chosen to take. I'll make sure your involvement stays off the record. As far as anyone knows, Riva was killed during an unexpected ambush, and Luce Nera responded to the emergency."
"Thanks."
"You earned it. About the favor we agreed on..."
Huey had been waiting for this. "Change of plans, I need you to investigate someone."
"Who?"
"Marcus Chen."
Hailee's expression shifted slightly. "Why does that name sound familiar?"
"I don't know. But Montez knew it. He said I reminded him of an Achusoi he met named Marcus Chen. Said he was dead."
"You think it's somehow connected to father's case?"
"Maybe. Or maybe it's connected to me and what happened eight months ago."
Huey's blue eyes met her green ones.
"Either way, I need to know who Marcus Chen was."
"I'll look into it."
"Discreetly."
"Always." She checked her comm. "I need to get back to the students. You coming?"
"In a minute."
Hailee nodded and walked toward the carrier.
Huey stood alone in the ruins, his mind racing.
"Marcus Chen, why does that name sound so....."
His hand went to the gold cross at his throat.
Three hundred kilometers away, Montez entered a room bathed in red light
A figure sat in the darkness, only the faint glow of a screen illuminating their features.
"Q," Montez said, placing the Nexus Key on the desk. "As requested."
"Finally." The figure reached for it, activated it.
Silence.
Then, "What is this?"
Montez leaned forward. "What do you mean?"
"This is a podcast about some stupid squirrel's eating habits."
"That's impossible. I verified it before leaving....."
"You saw what someone wanted you to see." Q's voice was cold. "This is worthless."
"Riva must have"
"You already told me Riva tried to trick you. You said you caught her and took the real key from her collar."
Montez's stomach dropped. "I did, the data should be there"
"Then someone switched it after you took it. Or before. Or you were shown a convincing fake."
Q stood, and even in the shadows, their presence was oppressive.
"We needed that key, Montez. It contained information critical to our operations.
"I can get it back....."
"The streets will be crawling with Toplars out on the look for you."
Montez's mind raced, going over every step.
The fight with Riva, recovering the other key from her collar.
Everything had been in order.
Unless...
To the Crestless student with those unsettling blue eyes.
The one who'd started everything by claiming Riva was planning to betray him.
The one who'd looked at him like he was solving a puzzle.
"The Achusoi," Montez said quietly.
"What?"
"There was a Crestless student. He's the one who told me about Riva's betrayal. He knew things he shouldn't have known."
"His name?"
"Cross. Huegen Cross."
Q was silent for a long moment.
Then, "Interesting."
"You know him?"
"I know of his family. The Cross bloodline is significant." Q turned back to the screens. "If a Crestless Cross outsmarted you, Montez, then we may have underestimated our opposition."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Nothing. For now." Q's fingers moved across the keyboard, pulling up files. "We'll need to revise our approach. But the boy's interference is noted."
"And Riva?"
"A loose end, now severed. Her usefulness ended the moment she decided to play her own game."
Q pulled up another screen, showing surveillance footage from the rift site.
Frozen on the image was Huey's face, blue eyes staring directly at the camera.
"Keep an eye on this one," Q said. "Anyone clever enough to manipulate both you and Riva is clever enough to be a problem."
"Understood."
Montez left, his mind already working through scenarios, through possibilities.
The Crestless Cross had made him look like a fool.
That was unacceptable.
In the darkness, Q stared at Huey's frozen image.
"Who are you really, Huegen Cross?"
"Mr Q, you skipped your dinner again, you know you need your strength."
Johnny's voice cut through the brooding.
"Johnny boy, I told you not to interrupt me when I'm scheming. I will eat my dinner went I want to!!!!"